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10.1

On my current project, I’m exploring the new snapshots feature in FCP 10.1.1. It’s one of those features that, at first, seems like a small addition. But in practical usage, I’m finding that it’s a huge shift in how I think about versioning.

In FCP 7 and prior, I would duplicate timelines to create versions. When too many timelines were in my project, I would duplicate the project if it had grown too large. Then I’d trash old versions to decrease the file size and move forward.

In previous versions of FCP X, I would duplicate the timeline and append a v2, v3, v4, and so on at the end of each day or notes pass. On the next day I’d continue on with the duped and updated version. Dupes represented both archives AND new versions.

But with 10.1, things are a flipped around. Here’s a graphical explanation of the switch.

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of both attending and demoing FCP at the FCPWORKS L.A. launch event. It was a great day that harkened back to the early years of Final Cut when Apple would demo and do one-on-ones with prospective and upgrading users.

What was great about yesterday’s event was not only that channel partners like AJA and Quantum were there showing full support for the new FCP ecosystem, but that Apple was there as well, demoing all the new features. The fact that there were about 10 Mac Pros chugging away was pretty impressive, too. I got to work on an 8-core all day and… holy shmoly I want one.

This is a pretty basic command and not exactly earth-shattering, but I had no idea that it existed until today. I found it when I was reading through some of the commands in the command editor. This could be helpful after a long day of editing a radio cut and dealing with expanded audio and b-roll.

Ok, exciting night here at the Garbershop homestead. The boards are lighting up like crazy. And I forgot my power supply for my laptop at the freakin’ office!

I’ll update this post with updates. But here’s what I know for now.

FCP 10.1 released (tons of updates and changes)

Compressor 4.1 released (new UI)

Logic update released

Motion 5.1 released

Event Manager X now free. Read this article about using it to move your old FCP file structure over to the new Library structure. It’s very easy and straightforward. I’ve already done it with a client project.

The Twittersphere and the CreativeCow-asphere are all abuzz and agog today with rumors of tomorrow’s impending FCP X-dot-who-knows release. Over the past few weeks, I’ve remained somewhat detached from all of this.

My feelings on the next release are that it’s best to temper my own expectations. Maybe there will be one or two major features. Maybe one of those will actually work on the day of launch. And maybe there will be a bunch of bug fixes. And maybe, just maybe, those bug fixes won’t need to be corrected next month.

It’s ALL hearsay and conjecture by anyone making comments about this stuff on the Internet. Just sit back, try to relax, and enjoy the show. Countdown to 10/22/13 begins… now.